Texas Instruments Documents

Early Documents

Acknowledgements: The author is very grateful to Ed Millis for providing copies of these important documents. For the full history of Texas Instruments on this site please return to The Early History of Texas Instruments Semiconductors.

Shortly after the announcement of the Bell point-contact transistor Bob Olsen, Chief Engineer at GSI wrote to Bell requesting more information and samples. Here is Bell's reply:

In October 1948 Bell shipped two Type A transistors to Olsen so he could begin evaluation. Here is the packing slip for the order:

Bell got a license from Bell in 1952 and set up their own manufacturing facility. Their first transistors were the Types 100 and 101 and their first sale was in December 1952 to the Gruen watch company:

Note that this not the first commercial sale Globally but is the first by Texas Instruments.